America is on track for an epidemic of addiction and overdoses from anti-anxiety medication, a top clinician warns.
With the nation's attention on prescription painkillers, there has been scant conversation about the climbing rate of people being prescribed benzodiazepines, potent drugs like Xanax and Valium designed to alleviate anxiety and panic attacks on a short term basis.
Dr Anna Lembke, a psychiatry professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and author of Drug Dealer MD, warns 'benzos' are being consumed and distributed in a way that eerily echoes the lead-up to the opioid epidemic.
Crucially, she warns, more and more patients are finding it impossible to reduce their dose or quit the drugs even after one prescription, paving the way to either an excruciating battle with withdrawal symptoms or a lifetime of addiction.
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9 comments:
I was presribedp xanax by a nurse practitioner in 2009. I thought they were non-addictive and harmless. Asked her if taking 1 or 2 was a problem. She responded I don't have a problem with that. Guess I didn't read between the lines. Suddenly 3 years later my doctor started seeing me. Told me it was a horrible drug and to discontinue immediately as he would not prescribe them to me anymore. Let me tell you it was living hell for an extended period of time. A lesson learned the hard way.
You have to do your own research before taking drugs. I never take the word of a dr or nurse when it comes to drugs.
12:54 So what do you do now about your Anxiety? If you want to keep taking everyday, weather you need them or not, it is addictive.
I have a prescription. I take them when needed, Only.
When Anxiety hits me, my ears heat up, my stomach turns, and I will be in the bathroom within a hour. I take 1/2mg, within 20 minutes, I am good to handle the situation at hand. This medication is not made to be taken everyday without developing addiction issues.
B.S.
Anyone with an addictive personality can hook themselves on anything.
When used according to Dr. Recommendation meds work.
For occasional use, it's an okay drug. Use it every day and you're looking for trouble. The right strain of cannabis might be a better alternative for many who are prescribed Xanax.
BS. A new doctor wouldn't cut you off like that, you would be weened off because xanax withdrawal can cause seizures.
12:54....typical response from a weak person who now knows how everyone else should live because THEY had a problem, be it with alcohol, Xanax, drunk drivers, teen sex, guns, you name it.
Crusaders are dangerous people. What's next? Big, fat, 500 lb losers on a crusade against donuts because THEY couldn't stop at five and needed the whole dozen? Every day?
Live YOUR life. Stop lecturing the rest of us on your particular weakness that you need to eliminate for the rest of us.
You got treatment for 3 YEARS (!?) before you ever saw a real doctor??
I'm calling BS on that.
3:58 has it right and it's called "moderation" (in EVERYTHING).
You poor thing, I hope somehow, someway, some day, you get your life together.
In the meantime, work on YOUR problems and leave OURS alone. No one needs you to save them.
I've been on it for years for panic attacks and I'm not
addicted ! Thank GodI have it when they occur too.
I never take it unless absolutely needed. A bottle of
90 pills will last me almost a year.
It's the addictive characteristic in a person that makes
them take so many.
I was on Lexapro and my doctor told me to stop cold turkey and I argued that it wasn’t a good idea for me to do it that way. He said that’s the way he does it. Thank God I didn’t listen. It was hard enough weening off of it.
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